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Help[Facts] Ancient Greek names
Do Greek people still use ancient Greek names such as Aristotle or other less common ones? Or is it regarded as antiquated?
I have youtube
https://youtube.com/channel/UCrV2fqAWDyIGZQckbNUju3g
I have youtube
https://youtube.com/channel/UCrV2fqAWDyIGZQckbNUju3g
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Replies
Ancient names are still used, though much less often than modern names (which are usually Orthodox saint names or names from the Bible).
The only exception to this is Eleni, which is the modern Greek form of Helen / Helene.
Overall, you’re much more likely to meet an Ioannis or Konstantinos in Greece than an Aristotelis, though it’s not completely impossible to meet one.
The only exception to this is Eleni, which is the modern Greek form of Helen / Helene.
Overall, you’re much more likely to meet an Ioannis or Konstantinos in Greece than an Aristotelis, though it’s not completely impossible to meet one.
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Yes, though some of the names are transcribed differently due to pronunciation differences between ancient Greek and modern Greek:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_alphabet#Sound_values (in English)
The name you mentioned is a good example of this. The ancient Greek form of Aristotle is Ἀριστοτέλης (Aristoteles). It is written virtually the same in modern Greek (Αριστοτέλης), but transcribed as Aristotelis in reflection of the phonetic change that the Greek letter η (eta) has undergone over the centuries. A famous modern Greek bearer of the name is Aristotelis Onasis (1906-1975), whose name is usually anglicized to Aristotle Onassis.
You see the same kind of phenomenon with Socrates: Σωκρᾰ́της (Sokrates) in ancient Greek, but Σωκράτης (Sokratis) in modern Greek.
For a nice general impression of ancient (and also late i.e. early medieval) Greek names that still see some use in modern Greece (or at least up until the late 20th century), see the archived version of the Greek name website Etymologica:
http://web.archive.org/web/20120324121232/http://www.etymologica.com/index.htm (in English; be sure to scroll down and read the section titled Greek Names: Surviving a Paradigm Shift!)
It was created by Pavlos, a native Greek who used to frequent this board up until a few years ago. There are some transcription errors here and there, but overall the website is pretty reliable and provides one with decent insight into the kind of names that you can expect to see in modern Greece.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_alphabet#Sound_values (in English)
The name you mentioned is a good example of this. The ancient Greek form of Aristotle is Ἀριστοτέλης (Aristoteles). It is written virtually the same in modern Greek (Αριστοτέλης), but transcribed as Aristotelis in reflection of the phonetic change that the Greek letter η (eta) has undergone over the centuries. A famous modern Greek bearer of the name is Aristotelis Onasis (1906-1975), whose name is usually anglicized to Aristotle Onassis.
You see the same kind of phenomenon with Socrates: Σωκρᾰ́της (Sokrates) in ancient Greek, but Σωκράτης (Sokratis) in modern Greek.
For a nice general impression of ancient (and also late i.e. early medieval) Greek names that still see some use in modern Greece (or at least up until the late 20th century), see the archived version of the Greek name website Etymologica:
http://web.archive.org/web/20120324121232/http://www.etymologica.com/index.htm (in English; be sure to scroll down and read the section titled Greek Names: Surviving a Paradigm Shift!)
It was created by Pavlos, a native Greek who used to frequent this board up until a few years ago. There are some transcription errors here and there, but overall the website is pretty reliable and provides one with decent insight into the kind of names that you can expect to see in modern Greece.
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